Superhero Squad Read online

  “Wonderful creatures, chickens,” Nanny Beam said.

  “I like them a lot.” I smiled, sipping my tea as a chicken began nuzzling Nanny Beam’s ankle. “Have you always loved animals?”

  “Oh, yes. I always thought I was going to be a vet but then when I found out about the superpowers, I realized that I was bound to a different path.” She sighed. “My bizarre connection with animals suddenly made sense.”

  I looked at her in confusion. “What does that have to do with your powers?”

  “Didn’t Kiyana tell you? That’s my extra power, if you will,” she explained, her bright green eyes twinkling. “Just as your mum is incredibly fast and Lucinda has powers of persuasion and charm, I have a rather extraordinary bond with animals. I feel very lucky. That’s why I started the sanctuary when I retired from saving the world. I knew it was my destiny to provide a home to any animals who were in need.”

  “That’s so cool. I don’t know what my extra power is yet.”

  “Don’t you?” Nanny Beam asked curiously. “I should have thought yours was the strongest of all. Especially considering your powers have appeared at so young an age.”

  “Yes, but that’s just because the Light of the World was found again, so it brought my powers into play earlier than normal. It has nothing to do with me.”

  Nanny Beam’s eyes flickered towards the swirled scar on my palm, before lifting her gaze to meet mine and a wide smile crept across her face.

  “I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Aurora Beam. I think you’re very special. Don’t you worry, we’ll find out your extra power soon enough. Anyway” – she abruptly stood up, causing all the chickens to stop what they were doing and stand to attention in a military row – “let’s not waste this beautiful sunshine! When you’re ready, Aurora, we shall all have a lovely outing. I’ll let the others know what the plan is. I imagine Augusta the alpaca will have something negative to say about it. She loves to cause drama that one.”

  She rolled her eyes and then swanned out of the room, the trail of chickens following her eagerly.

  Over the next few days I fell into a routine with Nanny Beam and her wacky life. Every morning I’d help her feed the many animals before we would all walk to the top of the cliff for a yoga lesson in the sunshine. I had never done yoga before, but Nanny Beam helped me. I loved it, even though I wasn’t very flexible and occasionally tumbled over on to my bottom, making the donkeys bray with laughter. Chickens, it turns out, are very good at yoga.

  “Lucinda’s ostrich, Alfred, loves yoga and Pilates,” Nanny Beam informed me as we made our way back to the cottage one morning. “I’ve learnt a lot from him.”

  I spent the afternoons reading books on the beach or playing in the sea with the donkeys before heading home to tuck into a delicious healthy dinner. I felt very sophisticated, as though I was on one of those posh retreats that Hollywood actors like to do.

  When it got to my last day, I felt sad that I was leaving.

  “Me too, Aurora,” Nanny Beam said gently, when I told her so. “In fact, I feel so down about it, I’m going to go sit on the roof.”

  Although that might cause most grandchildren to worry, Nanny Beam announcing that she was heading to the roof was part of her daily routine. She would sit, meditating and Sun Gazing and getting cross with any alpacas that she tripped over up there.

  “Augusta!” I heard her yell. “Stop eating the tiles!”

  While Nanny Beam was on the roof, I decided to take my book and read in the sitting room until she came down. Before I got curled up in the armchair, I took a moment to admire all her photos and trinkets on the mantelpiece. She’d told me that all the bits and bobs in here were collected from her previous adventures around the world. There were several wooden and marble carvings, a delicate ancient fan and an intricate music box.

  I opened the music box and it began to play a soft tinkling melody. In the middle of the box, spinning to the music, was a tiny model of a ballet-dancing chicken. I giggled, rolling my eyes. Trust Nanny Beam to have found a chicken music box. Wondering where in the world she got it from, I reached forward and touched the top of the chicken’s head to get a closer look.

  I must have pressed it a bit harder than I meant to. There was a sharp clicking sound as the chicken was pushed down, like I had accidentally pressed a button. The music box came to a sudden halt.

  I began freaking out that I had broken something very precious, before a series of loud clunking noises started coming from underneath the mantelpiece. A loud boom echoed round the room and the fireplace swung open revealing a dimly lit metal staircase behind it.

  It wasn’t a fireplace at all. It was a secret door.

  “What on earth?” I whispered, crouching to peer inside.

  I glanced back at the empty room. Nanny Beam must still have been on the roof and I was much too curious not to see what was down there.

  Wishing the Bright Sparks were here with me – Fred would have LOVED this – I ducked through the fireplace and crept carefully down the steps. It was pitch black at the bottom and I tried to feel along the walls, but I couldn’t find a light switch anywhere.

  I held my hands out.

  Since arriving at Nanny Beam’s a week ago, I hadn’t used my super powers. Not just because I was here on holiday and taking a break from it all, but also because I was terrified after causing such havoc on Good Morning Britain. I hadn’t felt in control at all and I could have hurt someone. All my confidence had fizzled away after the incident and just the idea of using them was making my hands shake.

  “Come on, Aurora,” I whispered to myself through the darkness. “You can do this.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, pulling all my focus to my powers. At first nothing happened, but then I began to feel that strange tingling feeling and a couple of bright sparks burst out of my fingertips. With all the energy I could find, I began to produce a very dim glow from my palms, not nearly as sparkling or bright as normal.

  But I guess it was a start.

  Using my faint glimmer, I was able to make out that I was in a large underground space. I could just see the outline of some dark shapes, but I couldn’t see what they were without getting closer.

  I took a step forward and bright strip lights automatically flickered on in the ceiling, right across the room. As my eyes got used to the light, I was able to make out what all those shapes were.

  My breath caught in my throat.

  Computers. Loads of them; really high-tech ones too, with the biggest screens I’d ever seen, and glass cases dotted along the side containing weird-looking gadgets. The vast room was shiny, minimalist and modern, with steel silver walls, no windows and a huge control panel of different coloured buttons right in front of me. It was like wandering into the gadget scene of a James Bond film or a flashy spaceship movie. Alexis would have been in heaven here.

  I gazed across the room in shock, my mouth hanging open.

  What was this place?

  A cough came from behind me, making me jump out of my skin.

  I spun round to see Nanny Beam watching me from the bottom of the stairs.

  “Hello, Aurora,” she said, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. “I see you’ve discovered my little secret.”

  8

  “N … Nanny Beam” – I stammered – “what is all this?”

  She let out a long sigh and stepped forward to stand right in front of me.

  “Aurora, I will tell you. But I need you to promise me that you won’t repeat it to a soul. Do you promise?”

  I glanced nervously at all the computer screens and then looked back to her. She bent down to look closely into my eyes.

  “Promise?”

  I gulped before nodding vigorously. “I promise.”

  “All right then.”

  She stood up straight and turned on her heel to face a small flat silver panel in the wall. She cleared her throat.

  “Activate,” she said clearly.
r />   A red light came on in the middle of the panel, projecting a thin line across her forehead that scanned down to her chin and disappeared.

  “Facial and retinal recognition,” she explained, turning to look over her shoulder at me as the light blinked from red to green. “It’s the latest model.”

  “Welcome, Patricia,” a computerized voice greeted her, with surround sound booming throughout the room.

  “Thank you,” she replied to the panel in the wall. “Turn on all systems, please.”

  “Turning on all systems.”

  A whirring sound echoed through the basement as the dozens of computers came to life. All of them seemed to display something different. Some turned on random security footage, each screen flicking every few seconds to a different scene, while other screens flashed up lines of continuously scrolling green data: jumbled letters and numbers, which didn’t make any sense.

  Nanny Beam chuckled as she witnessed my reaction. My mouth had become very dry from hanging open so long.

  I was in complete and utter SHOCK. My grandmother, who everyone thought was a sweet, slightly bonkers, retired old lady, had a SECRET UNDERGROUND LAIR. My grandmother! Nanny Beam! Who likes talking to chickens and alpacas! HAS AN UNDERGROUND LAIR. WITH A HIGH-TECH LASER SECURITY SYSTEM.

  WHAT IS HAPPENING?

  “I’ve always been fascinated by technology,” Nanny Beam said fondly, as my brain became as scrambled as the rolling data on the screens surrounding me. “Much like Alexis. I think he got that streak from me.”

  “I … I…”

  I tried to form words, but I was too stunned by the madness of it all. Nanny Beam has bright pink hair and does yoga on the rooftop. Grannies with bright pink hair and hundreds of aromatherapy candles do NOT have these kind of secret spy bunkers filled with the latest technology built underneath their quaint seaside cottages.

  Do they?

  “The truth is,” Nanny Beam began, watching my mouth silently open and close like a fish, “I was never able to give the superhero thing up completely. I tried to retire from the life and take a step back, but it was a lot harder to leave it behind than I thought it would be. The Beam women have always been on hand to save the world, which is tricky enough, but nobody ever tells you the most difficult part of the job.”

  “Letting go?” I managed to croak eventually.

  “Actually, it’s letting your daughter go,” she corrected gently, avoiding eye contact. “Every Beam woman has to step aside and then watch her daughter devote her life to stopping danger.” She let out a long sigh. “I have never stopped being sick with worry at Kiyana putting herself in harm’s way to save the world. She’s a fantastic superhero, your mum, but in my eyes, she’ll always be my little girl.”

  “Wait a moment,” I said, holding up my hands. “Let me get this straight. You’ve been secretly saving the world too all this time? You weren’t running an animal sanctuary after all?”

  “No, no, no, don’t be so ridiculous, Aurora.” She laughed, although it didn’t seem at all ridiculous to me considering we were standing in the middle of her SECRET UNDERGROUND LAIR. “Of course, I’m running my animal sanctuary. I merely like to keep an eye on things. And be available for back-up just in case. Kiyana has no idea about all this.”

  Nanny Beam held out her palms and made them glow with a neon pink sparkling light. She grinned, wiggling her fingers. “There’s still life in me yet.”

  “But Nanny Beam, Mum would kill you if she knew,” I said, walking over to a computer screen that was showing a debate going on in the House of Commons. “You’re supposed to be living a quiet life, saving chickens!”

  She shrugged. “That’s why I made you promise to keep it secret. This is all just a bit of fun.”

  “Then the wacky, hippie thing you have going on is all just an act? A front to hide the fact that you’re actually a serious technological mastermind?”

  She furrowed her brow in confusion. “What wacky, hippie thing?”

  “Uh … nothing. Never mind,” I said hurriedly, changing the subject. “Does Mum have something like this, too? She’s never shown me her secret superhero headquarters. Is it under our house?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Nanny Beam chuckled. “Kiyana is a bit more of a hands-on superhero. She’s never been one for computers.”

  I ran my eyes over a big control panel, which had hundreds of buttons and then one big red one in the middle. “What happens if you press that?”

  “Everything self-destructs in five seconds.”

  I instinctively jumped backwards before Nanny Beam burst out laughing.

  “You’re joking, right?” I said hopefully.

  She grinned. “I guess you’ll never know. I shall have to be extra careful around you, now that I know you have a prominent curious streak. There I was thinking that the music box was a stroke of genius. Who would guess that the dancing chicken is a button? I’ll have to think of something else and get that sorted.”

  “You don’t even have a computer in the cottage,” I said, still wondering if I was in some kind of weird dream.

  Nanny Beam watched as I wandered along the first row of computers, examining the footage on the screens. Suddenly, one of the computers started making a beeping sound. Nanny Beam hurried over to it and peered at the monitor.

  “Ah,” she said. “I just need to make a quick business phone call, Aurora. I won’t be a moment. Stay right there and then I’ll give you the full tour.”

  She marched to the opposite side of the room, before lifting her wrist to her mouth, appearing to speak into her bracelet. I shook my head and continued to admire all the gadgets.

  There was a large pile of backdated folders on one of the desks near me which looked out of place among all this high-tech equipment – clearly Nanny Beam’s filing system from a long time ago. I didn’t think much of the stack of crumpled paper and files until I noticed an old photograph sticking out of them.

  I pulled out the picture to look at it more closely. It was Nanny Beam from a long time ago standing next to a man and a boy, neither of whom I recognized. I squinted closely at the man and smiled when I realized that he had exactly the same nose and curious expression as Nanny Beam – this must be her brother. Mum had mentioned her uncle a couple of times, but it was an uncomfortable topic for her because, apparently, he and Nanny Beam had had a major fallout before he passed away when Mum was a teenager. After that, Nanny Beam never talked about him. It was nice to see what he had looked like.

  I heard her footsteps coming back and quickly pushed the photo back into the file, not wanting to upset her. As I did, an old newspaper clipping slipped out and fluttered to the floor. I quickly bent to pick it up.

  “What’s that?” she asked curiously as I straightened.

  “Oh, it … it just fell out from your file.”

  As I held it out to her, I caught a glance of the headline: LIGHT EXPLOSION IN WAREHOUSE!

  “Whoa.” I grimaced. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “It wasn’t,” she said gravely, glancing at the clipping and then placing it carefully on to the desk. She gestured towards the files with a wave of her hand. “These are just all old cases of mine, back when I was doing your mother’s job. So” – her expression softened – “what do you think of it?”

  “You mean, your underground lair? I can’t get my head round this place! It’s just so … cool. I feel like I’m in a movie.”

  “You haven’t even seen the best bit,” she said excitedly, gesturing for me to follow her. “I have to say, although it’s not ideal that you happened upon my secret, it is quite fun to be able to share it with someone. I’ve never been able to show it off before. Come on, this way.”

  I followed her to the back of the room, past the glass cabinets containing random objects, which Nanny Beam explained to me on the way. For example, glittering silver, heart-shaped sunglasses – “they can shoot out laser beams”; an orange feather boa – “that transforms into a zip wire a
t the press of a button. Very handy when stuck on a roof”; a stickered skateboard – “powered with an inbuilt jet engine, so goes extremely fast. Last time I used it, I got terrible windburn on my cheeks”; and a microphone – “you’d be surprised at how many evil geniuses out there have a soft spot for karaoke. Offer them a moment in the spotlight before they begin their evil plans and they simply can’t resist taking the mic to belt out a ballad. But that microphone morphs into unbreakable handcuffs, trapping you as soon as you hold it.”

  “Do you develop all these gadgets yourself?” I asked in awe.

  “No, I have contacts. Although the microphone was my idea,” she said proudly, as I shook my head in disbelief. “Rather pleased with that one. It’s used all over the world.”

  We stopped as we got to the back of the room, the wall there being a large mirror like the ones in dance studios. It made the room feel like it went on for ever and ever. Nanny Beam stepped sideways to face another silver panel, this one embedded into the mirror.

  “Activate.”

  Her face was once again scanned, but after the light went green, she pressed her thumb on to the panel too.

  “Fingerprint authentication,” she explained, winking at me.

  “Password,” the computerized voice demanded.

  “Silkie-Orpington-Leghorn.” She smiled at my confused expression, adding: “All types of chicken breeds. Marvellous creatures. I change the password every day, of course. Extra security measures needed for this end of the room.”

  “Nanny Beam.” I gulped. “What is behind this mirror?”

  “You’ll see!” she replied enthusiastically.

  There was a loud clunking sound as the mirror began to slide up into the ceiling. Nanny Beam was practically shaking with excitement next to me, muttering under her breath, “Oh, I can’t wait for you to see! I can’t wait for you to see!”

  As the bottom of the mirror wall rose high above my head, revealing the space concealed behind it, Nanny Beam whispered dreamily, “What do you think? Isn’t she magnificent?”

  Sitting on a launch pad was a wide, streamlined, neon pink, shiny, futuristic sports car. It was the most amazing car I had EVER seen.